The 10 Dumbest Things on TV So Far This Season

#5. The Packers-Seahawks Game

This is all fading into memory now, but the September 24 Packers-Seahawks game was probably one of the worst public displays of officiating of all time, bad enough to make the NFL cave in to referee union demands and end the unpopular lockout that had replaced the regular refs with high school referees and Bank of America vice presidents. To no one's surprise, they performed terribly for weeks, but this Monday night game apparently broke the camel's back.

The infamous bad call happened at the end of the game when Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate allegedly caught a last-minute long-shot pass to win the game. One of the referees alleged this, at least, while the other one was making pretty much the opposite call.

This cost the Packers the game and drove football fans into a frenzy that led to the return of the regular refs. What got missed in a lot of press coverage was that there were probably four questionable calls in a row leading up to that score, starting with a Packers interception (they stole the ball from the Seahawks) that was ruled not an interception, and the ball was given back to the Seahawks. And on the same play as the infamous touchdown-or-not-a-touchdown catch, the player who made the catch "pushed off" the guy defending him right before attempting to make the catch that he probably didn't even make, which is a penalty and should have ended the play.

And finally, in between the non-interception and the maybe-touchdown was a ridiculous pass interference call. Pass interference involves grabbing or otherwise molesting the receiver before he catches the ball. The guy in the blue here (Sidney Rice, a Seahawk) is the guy who was trying to catch the ball.

Naturally, the Green Bay Packer, Sam Shields, was called for a pass interference penalty, apparently for grabbing Sidney Rice's hand with his face.

#4. Death of the Wagon Man (Revolution)

Where did the replacement refs go after this? Apparently they began writing for NBC's hit show Revolution, with the same level of competence they had previously displayed in officiating. Very likely they wrote this scene, which attempts to explore the lengths people go to for survival in this post-apocalyptic world. In these times, desperate men do desperate things, like threaten little girls at knifepoint to try to extort food out of their families.

That little girl is Charlie, the heroine of the show. Her dad points a gun at the guy, and a tense standoff ensues, and finally the desperate man lets her go, because, as he says, he doesn't want to hurt anyone, he's just hungry. That said, he takes their wagon of food and starts walking off with it, very very slowly.

Seriously, he is just moseying along.

The dad points the gun at him again and what feels like another eternity goes by as he tries to decide whether to shoot or not. He finally puts the gun down, having wasted valuable time and letting the guy get about two feet farther away. Then the mom shoots the guy.

I mean, she had no choice. Look how far away he was getting!

Look at the gaping distance between these people! Another moment's hesitation and he could have been like 15 feet away! No, there was no chance that the two of them could have caught up to this speed demon on foot.

Taking a human life is a terrible thing, but I guess there was really no alternative here. It's not like they could have run -- or walked briskly -- up to him and tackled him or anything like that. Maybe tie him up. Beat the shit out of him. Or maybe they didn't want to take any chances because he had a knife. Fine, walk right up to him and shoot him in the leg. Shoot him in both legs and roll him away from the wagon with a long stick. Sure, some of this seems brutal, but I reckon he would probably prefer it to how things did turn out.

None of this is played as "My mom was a bloodthirsty murderer" or anything. Charlie keeps flashing back to this scene as she's about to walk up to a bad guy and shoot him, something her uncle said she wasn't tough enough to do, so the subtext is obviously "The women in our family are tough enough to do what needs to be done when we have no choice." Never mind that if her mom had walked up to the wagon man at the same rate Charlie is walking up to the present-day bad guy, she would have had her choice of limbs to shoot at point-blank.

The only way the flashback makes any sense is if they put the whole family in wheelchairs.

#3. Brand MonroeTM (Revolution)

In the future of Revolution, the Monroe Militia, an organized, oppressive military force dressed in Civil War uniforms, brands every one of its members with an M logo.

Which is fair enough -- that's the sort of thing a fascist military organization would do. But where did the symbol come from? Conveniently, the show has provided a flashback to answer that very question.

Apparently, before the blackout that is the premise of the show, there was a reckless, partying soldier named Sebastian Monroe. Returning to base one day (the day of the blackout, as it happens) without ID, he instead rolls up his sleeve:

And reveals a tattoo! Of his own name! And logo!

Now I admit that I don't know a lot about hard-partying soldiers, but I don't think that one of their top concerns is branding. Maybe this is one of the unexpected aftereffects of the Citizens United decision declaring corporations to be people, in that some people now mistakenly think they are corporations, and spend a great deal of time worrying about their market presence and developing a corporate logo. Maybe he's had his own stationery printed.

Or maybe the show's writers believe that it is impossible to overestimate the stupidity of their audience and it is important to bludgeon them to death with a hundred reminders that some character in the past is now some character in the present. That seems likely, since they immediately cut to present-day dictator Monroe washing his hands.

And then, for the portion of the audience that is illiterate, but can recognize faces, they have him turn dramatically toward the camera as the background music shouts, "LOOK AT THIS MAN'S FACE IT'S THE SAME GUY OH MY GOD."

At this point, people who strongly identify with Revolution are probably wondering, "Hm, what is the significance of this man? How does he relate to the flashback we just saw? I hope we find out in a future episode!"

#2. The Least Dying-Looking Dying Person Ever (Revolution)

When a character with a medical background (Maggie) gets stabbed in the leg, the wound needs to be sewn up. Obviously she can't do it herself, since she's badly injured and clearly going into shock.

I think what happened here is that they told the actress that her character should be "in shock" and she took that to mean that she should be very surprised, as opposed to being about to pass out from blood loss. Well, she nailed that one.

Anyway, she's supposed to be near death here, but she talks like she's just come back from an invigorating jog, chatting calmly and casually with everyone, and giving very clear orders to the bearded nerdy comic relief character on how he should sew her up. Despite his complete inexperience in medical matters and C-3POlike fretting about every stressful situation, she feels that he is the best candidate for the job, because there is no way she, in her weakened dying state, could do such a thing. So she nods briskly toward her backpack and tells him what materials he needs and what pockets they are in.

Note that she got stabbed in the leg, so her upper body is perfectly fine, and apparently her arms are strong enough to apply pressure to the wound herself instead of asking someone else to do it. But I don't know, I guess she has had a lifelong fetish to have a bearded nerd sew her up, and she'll be damned if she's going to pass up what could be her only opportunity.

And indeed it is, because she dies. I hope it was worth it, lady!

#1. The Point Where Revolution Started Being Eerily Similar to Star Wars

Yeah, yeah, I know, lots of things can seem similar to Star Wars because many story archetypes share the common elements of the Hero's Journey as described by Joseph Campbell, and wearing black is a common visual cue for villains, etc., and of course you expect vaguely similar plot arcs and character archetypes, but the sheer number of details seems a bit much. Take a look and decide for yourself:

After the brutal murder of their guardian(s), a whiny young protagonist (Charlie/Luke) who has always wanted to leave home sets off with an older British person of the same sex (Maggie/Obi-Wan) and a comic relief character who has been given a vital piece of intelligence in secret and charged to take it to someone (the droids/the nerd).

The purpose of their journey is to rescue an opposite-sex sibling who was captured in an ominous scene where a terrifying bad guy who is/wears/sounds black arrived with his soldiers, killed a bunch of people, unsuccessfully tried to interrogate someone and finally kidnapped said sibling.

Near the beginning of the journey, the hero is attacked by random ruffians, and the older British companion surprises us by dealing the ruffians a brutal fate (arm cut off, poisoned).

In order to continue on their journey, they find a scoundrel in a bar who likes to call people "kid" and persuade him to help. He is reluctant to help, and characters often wonder out loud if the scoundrel cares about anyone but himself. After getting into a fight in the bar, the scoundrel joins the group on their journey.

Later, they join up with a rebellion that is fighting the military power that employs the black/black-clad/black-sounding villain introduced earlier, who, despite his badassery and prominence in the story, is not the empire's leader, but serves an even more evil man above him. Also we find that the hero's same-sex parent, thought to have died a long time ago, is actually alive and with the enemy.

A bounty hunter comes after the scoundrel and encounters him twice, capturing him at some point.

After being freed, the scoundrel kills the bounty hunter.

Even though guns exist in this world, a lot of the fighting is done with bows and swords. In one dramatic scene, the older British companion is fatally stabbed while their group watches helplessly from a short distance away.

If you're still thinking that it's just coincidence, there's this interview with show creator Eric Kripke, where he said that he was inspired by Star Wars, albeit in a vague, hero journey way. But then there's also this, at the beginning of the pilot episode:

Kids in 2012 (when Charlie was a child) don't buy a lot of Return of the Jedi lunchboxes (unless they're big eBay shoppers), so that was probably shoehorned in for a reason.

I'm just saying, the story is still ongoing, but don't be surprised if Captain Neville throws Monroe down a shaft at some point.